Burgos letting no grass grow under her feet

STOCKTON - Dyane Burgos, the newest member of Stockton's City Council, isn't about to slow down. Just the opposite.

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By Scott Smith

recordnet.com

By Scott Smith

Posted Jan. 15, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By Scott Smith

Posted Jan. 15, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

STOCKTON - Dyane Burgos, the newest member of Stockton's City Council, isn't about to slow down. Just the opposite.

Start with Wednesday night when Burgos, 29, beat out 11 others vying for an appointment to the seat. She then drove home to crack open a textbook. She's three courses shy of a law degree.

Early Thursday morning, she was in Davis on training for her full-time job as county social worker. Most days she's at the Stockton courthouse trying to mend broken families. Thursday night, class for law school ended around 9 p.m.

By Friday, she had a lineup of media interviews, including a documentary crew hovering over as she ordered her morning coffee. That afternoon, she met with City Manager Bob Deis, who sent her home with an armful of budget documents.

And there's a wedding to plan. Last month her boyfriend, Gustavo Medina, popped the question. She said yes.

She lives on the move.

"I'm used to it," Burgos said. "I read mostly law books, but now it will be council materials as well."

Burgos became one of seven council members at a pivotal time in the city's history. She will help decide key moves in Stockton's bankruptcy fight while working to end the city's historic homicide spree that ended 2012 with a record number of 71 killings.

A majority of the seven-member council is new to office. Mayor Anthony Silva, 39, was sworn in last week with councilmen Moses Zapien, 31, and 22-year-old Michael Tubbs.

And they're younger. The council's average age today is 41, compared with the former council at 57.

Born in the foothill town of Sonora, Burgos' family moved to Eighth Street in Stockton when she was in the seventh grade. They later moved up north, and she graduated from Bear Creek High School.

She earned her bachelor's degree from San Diego State University, and then returned to Stockton, where she earned her master's from California State University, Stanislaus.

Along the way she learned Spanish, which she uses on the job. Her father, Alejandro Burgos, immigrated in the 1980s from war-torn El Salvador, where Burgos still has family. She polished her Spanish as a student in Spain and Costa Rica.

Burgos takes the seat vacated by Susan Eggman, who left the City Council in the middle of a four-year term upon winning her race for state Assembly. The appointment ends Dec. 31, 2014.

Burgos recalled her days as a waitress at Central Restaurant & Lounge on Stockton's Miracle Mile, where she met Eggman.

Burgos talked Eggman, a professor of sociology at California State University, Sacramento, into giving her a summer internship at City Hall in 2010. Eggman was pleased with Burgos' appointment.

"I think she was a fine choice for the council," said Eggman, who also encouraged the runner-up, Christina Fugazi, Eggman's appointment to the Planning Commission.

Eggman praised Burgos as bright, hard working and knowledgeable about the community. District 5 encompasses downtown Stockton, City Hall and dips down to some southside neighborhoods. Eggman and Burgos live near Victory Park.

Burgos' fiance works on Eggman's staff at the Capitol as a legislative aide.

Eggman was also pleased that Burgos adds diversity to the council as its second woman and she's a Latina. Eggman said Burgos won the seat on her own merits, without Eggman pulling strings behind the scenes.

"It's the council's pick. It is not mine," Eggman said. "She did this all on her own."

Burgos agreed. Yet she plans to model her service after Eggman, being an activist in the community by holding town hall meetings and voter drives. Her initial goals are to help calm the violence at Louis Park and breathe life back into downtown.

Mayor Anthony Silva - the only council member who didn't vote to appoint Burgos - raised concern in the selection process that she posed a conflict of interest because her mother, Tammy Hunt, works for the city. Silva backed Fugazi.

Burgos said she will abstain in case of a conflict of interest and doesn't see this as a big problem.

In a later interview, Silva said he respects his new colleague, and she has the potential to be a great councilwoman.

"I hope and pray she will be an independent thinker and she'll not succumb to ... politics," Silva said.

Burgos said that after the vote Silva approached her to offer his congratulations. Burgos said she has no hard feelings and that she is ready to work with the mayor and all of the council. She will take a seat on the dais in her first council meeting tonight.